"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."- John Dewey.
From the job market to tertiary education, from UPSR to A-Levels, Education in Malaysia focuses on bringing you the latest news and analysis on our nation's best bet on the future.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Can someone with a GPA below 2.0 get a scholarship?

I'm sure that our readers are aware of the latest political scandal to hit Malaysian political scene involving Anwar and his aide, Saiful Bukhari. I won't go into the political implications of this scandal. I've written about this in Malaysiakini and you can read it here and here. I just want to ask a rhetorical question here. Can a student such as Saiful Bukhari, who dropped out of Uniten after getting a GPA of less than 2.0 be entitled to a scholarship since this was what Najib alleges Saiful was asking for when he visited the DPM's office? I wish that I had known this. I would have recommended my friends to run as student leaders in the public unis and then use this as the basis to apply for a scholarship even though their grades may be shot to pieces.

18 comments:

CGPA < 2.0? I would think that it's likely "kicked" out rather than "dropped" out.

Even with the various workarounds in our scholarship system, this is still a bit too much. I still think that, going to our DPM for a scholarship was just an excuse to meet the DPM in person and possibly try to impress him and get a toe into politics.

I'd be very curious as to who his connections are and where the cables run. I didn't know that our DPM had the time to entertain kids with scholarship problems, with all the controversy and political battles that he has to fight.

You don't need a degree to be an MP. If he likes being a politician, he should just focus on working for the people, instead of wasting his time at a university. Let the scholarship go to someone else who has more interest in studying.

Really, you guys are naive. When I was studying in the UK, about 10 of the Malaysians in my class were scholars. But two or three of them were perpetually having to resit their exams. Of course the university, for politically reasons could not fail this source of income, but it is disgusting that these are actually filthy rich kids who are related to some politicians and have absolutely no need for the scholarships. Now this just happen in one department in one university in the UK. Tip of the iceberg, if you ever have been to the Nottingham games and seen how many Malaysian scholars there are in the UK alone. Welcome to the corrupted Malaysia!

In this BN and UNMO world its not much about how much you know but whom you know or better still WHO knows you!

Crap! When I was in UM in the early seventies there are only few students of certain race (guess?) and they keep failing and repeating along the years with majority not graduating...

Nowadays not only are they in very large numbers but graduating with "excellent" points! Wow! what modern education and politics can do! Even in refer exams its not a few with "conditional pass" as before now its a full class sitting for the exams!Malaysia Bolih!

Thanks to our former great Prime Minister for creating NUMBERS versus QUALITY

The funny thing if I can remember clearly he came to UM to give a speech and telling he is no trusting the quality of our students produced by the local universities...telling about bridges designed by our engineers collapsing or trusting our graduates to carry out important surgeries..

In other countries it is possible, since there are other factors that count - I know in my uni there are a lot of high-achieving students who do tons of stuff in the community but suffer a low GPA because they're not in school half the time.

That said, why would you need to go straight to the DPM for a scholarship? Have the lower channels been exhausted?

Zhat I qant to know is why it's necessary to go to the DPM's office to apply for a scholarship. The rest of us buy forms at the pejabat pos and wait for the response. What is so special about this kid?

alaaaa... u guys... dont make me sad la... me malay, pointer 3.89 in foundation... cocurriculum marks 8/10, from UM foundation of studies... upsr 5As pmr 8As spm 12As (9A1 3A2)... didnt get any scholarship... no mara... no jpa... no nuts man... i have many really smart and hardworking malay friends who share the same fate.. okay maybe worse cos they got 4.0 cgpa. the issue is not entirely racism la. its the corruption =( i deserve to get a scholarship... but all these scholarships taken by rich ppl... sobs... now im under loan to do medic in some private uni which still has 90% bumi quota =.= it brings down my morale cos i prefer racial balance in every comunity i go to. but what to do wor... no scholarship, no money.. got a place in local uni but wasnt my choice. sigh... dont keep saying racist racist... if they racist then why am i so tersisih. sobsob...

Every student, regardless of race or religion, who wants to study and in need for a scholarship to wait in front of the house of the caring future prime minister of M'sia. He will invite you in, offer you coffee or tea or ..? and assist you. If this should fail, go to Putrajaya and make an appointment with his caring chief of staff, he helped Saiful, a fluky once of the local university, at least you should be given a chance. Be sure you do not flunk out when the opportunity is given to you. Tell the press to come along, bring a camera, tell your friends...just in case you step on some C4!